adminCourtney Matende
Midlands Reporter
GWERU-based Chinese chrome smelter, Jinan Corporation is planning to construct four more furnaces at its Almid plant to increase its annual export earnings to US$100 million and create 500 more direct jobs.
The company operates five furnaces and will be commissioning a sixth low carbon furnace before end of this year.
Jinan Corporation is one of the country’s top foreign currency earners, grossing at least US$25 million from ferrochrome exports.
Speaking during a tour of the plant by journalists on Friday, Almid deputy general manager Mr Zhou Zhengqiao said funding for the four furnaces was already available through a grant from the Chinese government.
“We were chosen by the Chinese government to establish 10 furnaces and right now we have five furnaces functional and we expect to commission the sixth furnace by the end of this year,” said Mr Zhengqiao.
“After this we can generate US$100m per annum and 1 500 direct jobs. Our strength is we have years of experience, sufficient funding, efficient technology and 10 000 hectares of chrome claims.
“Jinan Corporation has a joint venture with Zimbabwe Alloys where it processes ferrochrome slags sourced from the now dysfunctional giant ferrochrome exporter.
“We have a joint venture with ZimAlloys where we use modern technology to process 4 million tons of slag which accumulated there in the past 14 to 16 years. We have achieved what others could not do in the past decades. We generate US$25m per annum. Most of the processed slag we use it as construction material.”
He also said the company was constructing three chrome ore plants, with two of the plants set to be commissioned soon and work on the third plant underway.
Mr Zhengqiao added that the company is planning to construct a plant on site to produce spare parts.
“We want to do our own machine manufacturing where we are going to produce 70 percent of spare parts on our own. Currently we are importing most of the spare parts from China, which costs us a lot and uses foreign currency. ”
Jinan Corporation exports low and high carbon ferrochrome to South Africa, South America, Europe and Asia. The company, which was established in Zimbabwe in 2008, is a subsidiary of Sichuan Yiming Investment Corporation of China.
Online Reporter